The Butterfly Shift
by DigiConjurer
Summary: Or how a single change to the timeline can change so much...
1. OOC is serious business

The Butterfly Shift

Chapter 1

OOC is serious business

Rei Katsura had long lost track of how many times his goal had been pushed out of his reach.

Yet as he stood before the office of the CEO of L Corp, a sense of accomplishment filled him. Maybe it was the fact that for a short period of time, he held all the cards. Or potentially it was the sense that all the bullshit in this 'hunt' was now behind him.

"Ready to do this, Rei?" his partner, Hackmon inquired, with the hacker giving a nod. The hacking appmon then placed his left front paw on the door as magenta energy began to crackle around it. He then touched the door, the two watching it smoothly slide into its respective built-in spot as they took the room in.

Inside, everything was white. The walls were white, the floor was white, the desk was white and of course, the laptop was white. Strangely, the only thing that wasn't primarily white was the green shirt and cap on a white ram creature that was just floating there. Rei's gaze fell upon it, focusing in on the face of the appmon. He wasn't sure what it was, but something about it seemed to fill him with nostalgia yet regrets. As such, he grabbed hold of the appmon without a second thought and made his way over to the laptop. Strangely, Hackmon then shot his human a cautious glare.

"Why did you pick that sleepmon up?" Hackmon inquired as he watched Rei balance the appmon in his lap and type at the same time.

"There was something about him that seemed familiar…" Rei responded and slammed the 'enter' key down, only for a loud 'creak' to echo throughout the room. "Crap."

The floor then shattered, dropping the trio into what appeared to be a beautiful blackish blue void. White lines of HTML and Javascript zipped across the sky, of what function they could be executing remained to be seened. Gaseous clouds of what appeared to be Basic processed their outcomes and seemed ready to bring forth whatever outcome in due time.

"Good job, Rei." Hackmon remarked and attempted to hold one of his paws up to his head. "Not only did you manage to not get any data off of that laptop, you somehow managed to get attached to some random thing that Leviathan just left there."

Rei didn't answer and chose instead to stare down towards the sleepmon. While he wasn't quite sure what it was, the sleep appmon's face seemed to be shifting, attempting to match the various expressions that the hacker was making. And for a few brief moments, he forget that he was even falling at the time, instead pretending that he was back at his apartment's balcony making silly faces with Hajime. It were these sort of moments that he wished to have once more, amid what seemed to be a series of never-ending setbacks intent on preventing him from ever finding his brother.

"It'll be alright, little guy." Rei whispered as he and the sleepmon suddenly found themselves floating there. "No matter what happens, I'll keep you safe."

A rift then formed in front of them, with no sign of Hackmon.

"I'm sorry, Rei." a voice called out, only for the two to be shoved into the portal. "May we meet again."

Rei then turned around and found his partner currently fending off a barrage of tentacles coming from an unknown source.

"Hackmon!" the hacker screamed as the grip of the 'portal' began to pull him and the sleepmon in. Yet, his shout fell upon deaf ears. "No…"

He made one last glance towards his partner as the rest of his body and his new 'partner' were sucked through.

On the other side, the two found themselves in a dark room.

"It'll be alright. It'll be alright..." Rei whispered and took a deep breath, only to have a cough from someone to interrupt him. "Who goes there?!"  
The beam of a flashlight then shifted over to him and the sleepmon.

"Just a nameless secretary carrying out her boss's orders." a voice explained as the light was refocused on a woman in her late twenties to early thirties. She was dressed in grayish black suit with a matching skirt and heels. "Now hand it over."  
Rei gave his best stink eye, though he was certain that the woman couldn't see it. Even if she had, he doubted she would even respond.

"Oh well, have a blast." the woman taunted as Rei pulled his applidrive out, quickly slipping a chip in.

 **Load: Dezipmon!**

In a matter of seconds, a man made out of zippers appeared.

"You call?" Dezipmon remarked and noticed the currently flashing woman. "I'll get to that."

 **Absorption Zip!**

Dezipmon then opened his chest up and sucked the person in.

"Is that all?" the zipping appmon inquired and Rei shook his head. "Good night and sweet dreams."

With that, Dezipmon returned to Rei's band, leaving the hacker and the sleepmon to silence. Afterwards, he took a deep breath and returned his attention to Sleepmon.

"Hajime…" he whispered and wrapped his arms around the sleep appmon. "No matter what happens, I'll be there for you."

"Rei…"

For a few brief seconds, Rei thought he had heard a familiar voice. As tempted as he was to get a similar result to prove his theory, he decided to let it go for the moment and head to bed...


	2. Pandora's Box

I don't own digimon.

* * *

Chapter 2

Pandora's Box

Sleep did not seem to come to the hacker that night, with what little he did seem to acquire fill with memories of the acts he had to commit.

"Rei, are you there?"

It was in the early morning hours, just as the hacker was about to give up on sleep. The voice in question was a familiar one, yet there seemed to a heavy amount of melancholy thrown in.

"Haru?" Rei whispered and took a deep breath. "Is something wrong?"

"Yes." Haru whispered through the watch against the sound of what appeared to be tears. "Our partners… They're gone..."

With a single statement, the world seemed to suddenly stop for Rei. While normally he would pay no attention to the affairs of his teammates, but this was a different matter.

"Get some rest." The hacker remarked and took a deep breath afterwards. "We'll meet at my place in the afternoon."

"Could you send us some directions at least?" a different voice inquired, possibly that Eri girl.

"Of course."

Rei got up from his bed and made his way over to his computer, quickly getting to work on writing up simple enough directions for the three to follow. Though that still left actually cleaning up the place.

 **Load: Protecmon!**

A few seconds later, a robotic appmon carrying two large shields appeared.

"Mr Katsura, what reason do you have to seek out my services?" Protecmon shouted and gave his master a salute.

"Can you help me pick up this place?" Rei inquired and watched Protecmon give him a confused glance.

"You're asking little old me, Mr Katsura?" the appmon inquired as a twisted smile formed on its face. "Why of course."

Short streams of fire shot out of Protecmon's shields, with the appmon deciding that heading towards the large pile of garbage was the most productive way to go about this. Or would have, if Rei hadn't ran in front of him.

"Boo!" Protecmon shouted and got a glare from his owner. "Fine. I'll do it the boring way, Mr Katsura."

He then dug into the trash pile, with Rei bringing a garbage bag over to help. While it wasn't the easiest task, especially with the lack of fire on Protecmon's part. Of course, that still left a variety of other things that needed to be cleaned in the apartment.

Yet, Rei had decided that opening the curtains was an excellent thing to do next. And while it did bring a whole bunch of light in, it was currently pitch black outside. So he went to the next task at hand, checking on the sleepmon.

The hacker made his way back over to his room, which had originally been his parents till his mother had died. According to his father, it was the result of an injury she had sustained on the job. But when he asked what exactly his mother actually did for work, dad never was able to give an exact answer. Usually, the man would say 'adventurer', only to laugh afterwards. Other times, he would say a 'magician'. Only to take it back right after, 'with no, that wasn't right'.

That arrangement only lasted a year, with his father getting into a car crash on the way to a job interview at L-Corp. On the way out, he had joked that L-corp would probably be the death of him. Then he handed Rei a small box and said something that had stuck with him since that day.

"If you're feeling alone and it seems that the whole world is against you, open this box." his father explained as he handed the plain wooden chest over.

"How will I know?" Rei had inquired, only for his father to just laugh.

"You'll know, my child."

With that, the two made a promise, the sort that one would take to their deaths. It was a simple one, that Rei would look after Hajime to the best of his abilities. Afterwards, he gave his sons a hug and walked out of their lives for the last time.

"Mr Katsura?"

Rei turned around, finding Protecmon standing before him.

"Yes?"

The hacker turned around, finding the protection appmon cradling a small wooden box between his shields.

"I found this while digging through the garbage. For some reason, that sleepmon of yours was all up in my face for some reason." Protecmon explained as he handed Rei the box.

"Thank you." Rei whispered and made his way over to the sleepmon, who had decided to take a nap beside the pile of trash. He then checked the clock on his phone, finding it to be a little bit after four.

So he sat himself down beside Hajime, applidrive in hand. As a precaution, he loaded Dezipmon up as well.

"Are you ready for this bud?" the hacker whispered and got what appeared to be a nod. "Good, because I doubt there is no going back after this."

He closed his eyes and carefully pushed the top of the box open. Inside, was a rectangular piece of plastic marked with a simple lineart of what looked like a fairie.

Load: ?

A cocoon of light then engulfed the hacker, which seemed to draw the sleepmon even closer to him.

"Do you think he'll be alright?" Dezipmon inquired and got a shrug from Protecmon.

"We can only hope." Protecmon answered as he got his flames on standby, only to be graced with a teenage girl that sort of looked like the hacker. She had Rei's seaweed green hair, even if went down to her waist along with his red eyes. But that didn't explain the grayish green dress and matching mary janes. Magenta butterfly-like faerie wings hung out of her back and what seemed to be the applidrive had been replaced, now thinner with a rod attached at the end. The chip from before was gone, seeming to have embedded itself as a symbol underneath the slot. Finishing off the look, was a magenta ribbon in her hair.

"Uh… who are you?" Dezipmon remarked, his hands already on his chest zipper. "Also, what did you do to Rei?"

The girl gave the zipping appmon a confused glance.

"Reina." the girl greeted as her gaze focused on the piles of trash. "Now, let's get to cleaning!"

* * *

Notes:

Well this has been done for a while. Sorry about the wait.


End file.
